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This story is based on an interview with Mary Roberts, 33, from Miami. She is about to launch a consultancy. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I was on the chubbier side growing up. However, as soon as I started competitive sports like basketball in high school, I got into good shape. It helped that I played volleyball multiple nights a week, too.

Then, I began to gain weight during my freshman year of college. I wasn’t looking after myself, partly because I was involved in a direct-selling enterprise, double-majoring in music and ministry, and interning in the inner city.

I remember things on the go, like wraps from cafés. Still, I was in denial that my body had changed.

The weight gain continued after college

The pattern continued when I left university. I worked for Teach for America before entering the field of disaster relief.

It was incredibly stressful and challenging. I was married to work, constantly in fight-or-flight mode, and visited over 35 countries, including Lebanon, Morocco, Thailand, and Peru.

My weight continued to increase. I’d worry about sitting in chairs I might struggle getting out of, and I felt self-conscious asking for a seatbelt extender on airplanes.

One of the factors was socializing with local people in disaster zones who, despite poverty and adversity, wanted to share meals with you. They did it out of honor, and it was considered rude not to finish everything on your plate.

Then, during the pandemic, I realized I had to take action. I went on a keto diet and got rid of 60 pounds. That said, I didn’t do it in a healthy way because a lot of the food was processed.

I had high cholesterol and was borderline pre-diabetic

I yo-yoed and neglected my health again, quickly regaining the 60 pounds I’d lost. In November 2023, I became terribly sick in Africa. I couldn’t work for 18 months, six of which were spent bedbound.

I didn’t get a formal diagnosis. But the doctors suggested that it was burnout from all that I was doing, getting infection after infection. By then, I had high cholesterol and was borderline pre-diabetic.

It wasn’t until May 2025 — two months after I lost my job due to budget cuts — that I took a long, hard look at myself. All my dreams and desires were tied to getting my body back to full strength.

Something has to change, and a friend offered me a guest pass to a local Life Time gym. I wound up joining, despite feeling a little ashamed about my size.

I worked out for a month before finding the courage to step on the scale. At 5ft 9 in tall, I weighed 335 pounds this time. “My only option is to get fitter,” I thought.

Soon, I was attending classes like Zumba and yoga and playing pickleball. I also did reformer Pilates and worked with a trainer.

I celebrated the first time I could do a lunge again and squat with a barbell. It was great to feel more like an athlete again.

I improved my diet

Nevertheless, my weight was barely shifting, and I was disappointed. Then I met a functional health doctor at the gym in December.

He found deficiencies in iron and some vitamins. My cortisol was high, and I had adrenaline fatigue. Luckily, my body started responding to treatment, and I was beginning to lose up to 10 pounds a month.

Meanwhile, I improved my diet, following a non-processed keto regimen and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables. I pretty much went non-dairy and gluten-free.

By then, I was working out six times a week. My longest day at the gym was 12 hours, though I spent time resting and socializing with the community. The staff said I’d put in a full work shift.

In March 2026, I entered a gym competition called 60XT, over 60 days. It isn’t based on weight loss, but rather on how much you can transform.

I literally stepped up to the challenge, doing between 15K and 20K steps a day. I combined cardiovascular exercise, such as walking, with strength training, Zumba, pickleball, and yoga;

People congratulated me at the end of the 60 days. I’d built muscle, lost 47 pounds, and gone from a size 24 to a size 10 to 12. I was selected as one of five national winners who had transformed themselves and won $10K and various prizes.

It’s not the money that counts. It’s the way I feel, and the confidence it gave me to launch my organizational and health consultancy soon.

I live by two mottos: “no what ifs,” as a commitment to myself, and “try everything,” from a Shakira song.